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The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away in stunning 1080p HD. The Beatles’ classic 1967 film is being re-released on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes next week, complete with a remixed soundtrack, several short documentary features and some outtakes. The upgraded version of the film will also be screened at New York’s Paley Center for Media on Oct. 24. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Elvis Costello, Steven Van Zandt, screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy and Jonathan Clyde from Apple. (The Beatles’ Apple, not Steve Jobs’ Apple.) Via New York Times:

When the Beatles’ self-directed, hour-long “Magical Mystery Tour” made its debut as a BBC television special on Dec. 26, 1967, viewers were left scratching their heads. One reason was that the BBC’s black and white presentation scarcely did justice to the colorful dream sequences and weird travelogue footage that were centerpieces of the group’s charmingly naive avant-garde romp – its first big project after the release of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and the worldwide live broadcast of “All You Need Is Love,” six months earlier.

But the film’s lack of a plot – the Beatles drove around England with a busload of actors and filmed whatever occurred to them at the time – was also regarded as a drawback for prime-time holiday fare. Apparently, the half dozen new songs, among them, what are now regarded as classic video clips of“I Am the Walrus” and “Your Mother Should Know,” were not enough to save the production from general opprobrium.